Clothespin



Aug. 22, 1939. J. E. LEMOINE CLOTHESPIN Filed Nov. 29, 1938 I? d i 2Patented Aug. 22, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT oFrrcs 1 Claim.

This inventionv relates to improvements in clothespins of the ordinarybifurcated wooden type. Such pins are usually made with a central slotextending up from the lower end for a considerable fraction of thelength of the pin, the slot being of such width that the legs on eitherside will be sprung apart to some extent when the pin is forced onto theclothes line, the resulting frictional pressure serving to hold the pinon the line.

According to the present invention, the faces of the slot are modifiedso that the legs need not press so tightly against the clothes line, theimproved pin being of such a nature that it can easily be'mounted on aclothes line but will be very effective in holding clothes on the line.A clothespin embodying the invention is furthermore relatively easy toremove from the line.

As hereinafter described, the invention consists in notching the innersurfaces of the legs of the pin in a novel manner so as to form suitablyplaced shoulders for retaining the clothes line in position when thepinv is mounted thereon.

For a more complete understanding of the invention, reference may be hadtothe following description and to the drawing of which Figure 1 is afront elevation of a clothespin embodying the invention.

Figure 2 is an edge elevation of the same.

Figure 3 is a section on the line 33 of Figure 1.

The clothespin illustrated on the drawing is of the squared type nowwidely used, but the invention can also be embodied equally well in theround-bodied type of clothespin. As shown, the pin consists of an upperbody from which a pair of legs l2 and I4 extend downwardly. Be-

inner face of the leg I4 is notched as at 24 to form an upwardly facingshoulder 26. Opposite the respective shoulders 22 and 26 the inner faceportions 30 and 32 are sloped so as to be in substantially parallelplanes which make small angles with the longitudinal axis of theclothespin. Thus between the shoulders 22 and 26 there is formed asubstantially rectangular space 34 having a width slightly greater thanthe width of the upper portion of the slot l6 and a length approximatelytwice as great as the width, this rectangular space being inclined at aslight angle with respect to the vertical axis of the pm. Thisclothespin is employed in the usual manner, the clothes line andclothing wrapped thereon being disposed within the rectangular area 34.The shoulder 22 tends to prevent the clothes line from penetrating toofar up the slot between the legs l2 and i i. The shoulder 23 tends toprevent the Clothespin from being accidentally dislodged from the lineby Vibration of the line or otherwise. Since the width of the space 34is greater than that of the upper portion of the slot IS, the line andclothing thereon are not so tightly pinched by the legs of the pin as bythe legs of the conventional pin of the same size. Thus there is lesspossibility of splitting the body of the pin when the clothing supportedby the line and embraced by the pin is thicker than usual. While theshoulder 26 is highly effective in preventing accidental dismounting ofthe clothespin, it does not interfere with the intentional removal ofthe same. Such removal can be facilitated by manually rolling theclothes line so as to ride over the shoulder 26.

I claim:

A clothespin having a pair of legs with a slot between, the inner faceof one of said legs having a transverse notch forming a downwardlyfacing shoulder nearly perpendicular to the vertical axis of the pin,the inner face of the other leg having a notch forming an upwardlyfacing shoulder vertically spaced from the downwardly facing shoulder,said shoulder and adjacent face portions of the legs forming asubstantially rectan-' gular space between said legs which is inclinedat a small angle to the vertical axis of the pin.

JOHN E. LEMOINE.

